British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has repeatedly attempted suicide while detained in Iran, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based advocacy group, said on Thursday.
Moore-Gilbert, a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Melbourne, has been detained in Iran since September, 2018, the statement said.
British and Australian media have reported that she has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by Iranian authorities.
The Iranian judiciary could not immediately be reached for comment.
“Kylie’s cries for help are so loud and desperate that even the walls of one of Iran’s most notorious prisons can’t silence them,” CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi said in a statement.
“The Australian government should heed her pleas and immediately facilitate her access to basic rights that the Iranian government has been denying her for nearly two years, and immediately get her back home where she belongs.”
Moore-Gilbert is being held in solitary confinement in a two to three meter cell with a toilet in the Evin prison in Tehran, Reza Khandan, an activist and husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, an activist lawyer currently imprisoned in Iran, told CHRI.
Moore-Gilbert is forced to wear a blindfold anytime she is taken out of the cell, Khandan told CHRI.
Iran has stepped up detentions of foreign and dual nationals amid a protracted standoff with Western powers, after the United States withdrew from an international agreement to curb Iranian nuclear activities and reimposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018.
Separately, journalist and film maker Mohammad Nourizad attempted suicide in a prison in Mashhad, his wife Fatemeh Maleki said in an interview with BBC Persian on May 2.
Nourizad was under pressure because authorities would not give him furlough, transfer him to a prison closer to his home or allow him regular phone calls, Maleki said in the interview.
Nourizad was imprisoned last year for signing an open letter, along with 13 others, calling on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, to resign.
British-Australian academic has repeatedly attempted suicide in Iranian jail -rights group
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British-Australian academic has repeatedly attempted suicide in Iranian jail -rights group
- Academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert as been detained in Iran since September 2018
- She's being held in solitary confinement in a two to three meter cell in the Evin prison
Arab and Muslim Democrats say Kamala Harris must do more to win their support
- Prominent Michigan Democrat Nasser Beydoun tells Ray Hanania Radio Show that to win over the community, Harris must embrace calls for Gaza ceasefire and Palestinian statehood
- ‘When there is a genocide on the line and when we see Israel taking this country down with it, then we have to say enough is enough and we are not going to tolerate it,’ he warns
CHICAGO: Nasser Beydoun, a prominent member of the Democratic Party in Michigan and a former candidate for the US Senate, said the “door is open” for Vice President Kamala Harris to win the support of Arab and Muslim Americans for her campaign to become president, but to do so she must be “more responsive” to the community’s concerns.
He said Arab and Muslim Americans traditionally have been big supporters of the Democratic Party for many years but there are growing concerns within the community about the failure of the Biden-Harris administration to do “what’s necessary to bring peace to the Gaza Strip.”
During an appearance on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” this week, Beydoun, a Lebanese American, said Arab and Muslim Americans want to support Harris but cannot commit until she makes a “clear and explicit” statement supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, along with ending the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
He added: “If Kamala Harris wanted to do something, she would come out and say, ‘When I become president, I am going to support a political state, I am not going to veto when the rest of the world says there should be a Palestinian state.’”
Instead, Beydun said, all she has stated is “’I stand with Israel’s right to defend itself. We have to bring the hostages home. And we need a ceasefire in Gaza.’ That’s not enough. Not when you have 40,000 people killed and not when you have my country supporting the genocide.
“If you want us, this is what you have to do to win our vote. It is no more ‘Come take a picture, eat some hummus and you have our vote.’ Those days are gone. I hope every Arab American and Muslim in this country has that same philosophy. We are too nice of a community and we have been docile long enough. Enough is enough.
“When there is a genocide on the line and when we see Israel taking this country down with it, then we have to say enough is enough and we are not going to tolerate it. So if Kamala Harris wants my vote she has to earn my vote. She doesn’t get it just because she is not Joe Biden.”
Beydoun also harshly criticized the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, saying he is not an option for Arab and Muslim American voters. “He doesn’t know what is right or what is wrong,” he added.
Polling shows “60 percent of the American public saying they want a ceasefire (in Gaza) and only 7 percent of Congress willing to mention the word ceasefire because of” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said.
Beydoun planned to stand in the primary election on Aug. 6 to choose the Democratic candidate to replace Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is not standing for reelection in November. Despite collecting enough signatures to qualify, however, he was removed from the ballot for technical reasons because he listed only a campaign post office box rather than his home address on required paperwork. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin won the primary and received the nomination.
You can listen to the full interview with Beydoun on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on WNZK 690 AM radio in Michigan, or online at ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.
Arizona man wanted for threatening to kill Trump
WASHINGTON: An Arizona man is wanted after threatening over social media to kill former President Donald Trump, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is in Cochise County as he visits the US border with Mexico as part of his campaign.
The man, Ronald Lee Syvrud, 66, has multiple outstanding warrants from Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said.
“No, I have not heard that but I am not that surprised and the reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys,” Trump said when asked about that threat against him in Arizona.
This is the latest in a series of threats against candidates ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.
In early August, a Virginia man was charged with threatening Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival, and a New Hampshire man was arrested in December for threatening to kill Republican presidential candidates.
In July, Trump was shot in his ear in an attempted assassination that left two others injured and one man dead.
The US Secret Service came under widespread scrutiny following the shooting. It resulted in the resignation of the agency’s director.
Despite this and new threats, Trump said he has “great respect” for the Secret Service and “the job they do,” while adding they made mistakes from which they will learn.
NATO air base in Germany raises security level due to ‘potential threat’
BERLIN: The NATO air base in the German town of Geilenkirchen has raised its security level based on intelligence information indicating a potential threat, it said late on Thursday.
“All non-mission essential staff have been sent home as a precautionary measure,” the base said in a statement on the social media platform X, without giving details. “The safety of our staff is our top priority. Operations continue as planned.”
Niger’s capital Niamey surrounded by floodwater
NIAMEY: Niger’s capital Niamey has been almost completely cut off from the rest of the country by rising floodwater following the heavy rains that have hit the Sahel region since June.
The main routes out of the city of about 1.5 million are mostly under water, and about 11,500 of its inhabitants have been affected by the disaster.
Over the past three months, the rains have caused 217 deaths across the country and affected more than 350,000 people, according to the military-led authorities that took power in July 2023.
Niamey, in the southwest of the country, was initially spared, but now canoes have replaced buses and delivery vans on the roads.
To reach other parts of the country, “you have to take a canoe and hope to find a vehicle on the other shore,” explained Habiboulaye Abdoulaye, a resident of a suburb totally surrounded by water.
Most transport companies have suspended their routes to the rest of Niger.
Watching a torrent of mud flow on the edge of the city, desperate driver Ali Adamou told AFP his truck had been “engulfed by the waters” along with four others.
“I was almost killed when a minibus sank,” Adamou added.
Along with dilapidated dinghies that charge 500 CFA francs a ride (a little less than $1), gendarme and military motorboats are helping to transport stranded residents.
To the east of the capital, French construction group Sogea-Satom is working to re-open National Route 1, the country’s principal highway that runs for almost 1,500 kilometers (930 miles).
On the banks of the Niger River in Niamey, excavators were at work to raise the dykes, while volunteers and soldiers rushed around to seal cracks with sandbags.
The Tera-Niamey highway, the only truck route between the capital and the north of Burkina Faso, recently reopened.
“The state is doing everything to restore traffic,” Col. Salissou Mahaman Salissou, the minister of transport, told public television.
The authorities fear that an extended transport interruption will lead to shortages, especially of fuel.
US sending $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, officials say
- Aid comes as Ukrainian forces continue to broaden their surprise offensive into Russia
- US talking with Ukrainian leaders to get a better assessment of their longer-term goals for the Kursk operation
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration will send about $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, US officials said Thursday, even as Washington works to get a better understanding of Kyiv’s incursion into Russia and how it advances the broader battlefield goals more than two years into the war.
US officials said the latest package of aid includes air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armor missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, vehicles and other equipment.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not been publicly announced. The formal announcement could come as soon as Friday, which is the eve of Ukraine’s Independence Day.
The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which means they are taken from Pentagon stockpiles and can be delivered more quickly.
The aid comes as Ukrainian forces continue to broaden their surprise offensive into Russia, where officials say they have taken about 100 square kilometers (62 square miles) of territory around Kursk. Russian troops, meanwhile, are making gains in the east, around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub.
Pentagon officials have said repeatedly that the US has been talking with Ukrainian leaders to get a better assessment of their longer-term goals for the Kursk operation, particularly as they see Russia advancing near Pokrovsk.
If Pokrovsk falls, the defeat would imperil Ukraine’s defenses and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are now just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away.
Asked about the Kursk operation, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday that “we are still working with Ukraine on how that fits into their strategic objectives on the battlefield itself.”
The US, she said, understands that Ukraine wants to build a buffer zone along the border, but the administration still has more questions about how it furthers Ukraine’s broader war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first visit Thursday to the border area where his forces launched the offensive on Aug. 6. He said Kyiv’s military had taken control of another Russian village and captured more prisoners of war.
The latest package of aid brings the total amount of US security assistance to Ukraine to more than $55.7 billion since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
